1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to a packaging and transfer system for disposable pipette tips. In particular, the present invention relates to an improve packaging and transfer system for pipette tips.
2. State of the Art
Medical and research laboratories are called upon to perform large numbers of repetitive tests. For example, large quantities of routine blood tests may be performed by a laboratory technician at one time. Samples of the blood in test tubes may be arranged in an array to facilitate speed in performance of the tests. For example, the test tubes may be arranged on a rack eight tubes wide by twelve tubes deep. Specific chemical or biological materials are then added to each tube in like amounts as a part of the testing process. This is typically accomplished by drawing in and subsequently injecting the chemical or biological material through a pipette tip that is attached to a pipette tool.
For testing of arrays of test tubes, multi-site pipette tools are provided that can hold multiple pipette tips. That is, manufactures of pipette tips provide them on trays or racks in an array (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,217 (Scordato); U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,482 (Scaramella, et al)) so that a multi-site pipette tool may easily register with sets of pipette tips. The pipette tips are typically thrown away after use.
The disposable pipette tips are typically supplied in trays which have openings for receiving 96 pipette tips. Typically, each of these trays is packaged in an outer box; and both the box and trays are discarded once the tips have been used. These trays take up a substantial amounts of space and utilize a large amount of packaging material which must be discarded. To eliminate this problem, empty trays are sometimes refilled by hand with a new set of pipette tips. However, due to the tedious and time-consuming nature of this process, empty trays are most often discarded, which further increases waste materials particularly with an increasing volume of testing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,482 (Scaramella, et al.) shows a system for storing pipette tips. It uses an alignment plate that is attached to a transfer card by a locking mechanism. The pipette tips are stored on the transfer card; and a stack of transfer cards with pipette tips are positioned in a box for transport and sale along with an alignment plate. Although reducing the number of empty trays and other disposable material, the locking mechanism is hard to operate and costly.
Thus, the laboratories and other testing facilities have a need for an inexpensive pipette tip packaging, storage, and transfer system that permits storage of pipette tips within a container of compact size in order to reduce the amount of storage space needed to stock the pipette tips and to further reduce the amount of packaging material used and thrown away. Furthermore, a need exists for a pipette tip storage and transfer system that is easy simple and easy to use to facilitate transfer of pipette tips from a storage container to a holding tray without requiring latching mechanisms or other moving parts.